January 2011

January 31, 2011

I finally got around to watching the much celebrated ‘The Social Network.’ All through the movie I kept thinking about the irony of a socially awkward young man inventing a socially virulent online platform. It is so ironic that it becomes normal in a reverse sort of way.

Perhaps it is just as well that Mark Zuckerberg, as portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg, displays a nervy antipathy towards friendship as a social necessity because without that he could not have created a platform for forced friendships.

There is no point reviewing the film just as there is no point reviewing any form of art. But in so much as they touch upon how Facebook has supposedly transformed the world of human interaction it might be a good idea to make a couple of observations about the film.

I do not know if Zuckerberg is anything like what Eisenberg portrays but as fictional characters inspired by real life people go the movie’s protagonist comes across as someone so cavalierly self-absorbed that if he does not watch out he could be a mild misanthrope. I am tempted to speculate that Zuckerberg invented Facebook to remedy some of his own inadequacies in social situations, but I will not because I know nothing about him. Also, I do not want him to remove my Facebook account.

Purely as cinema, what stands out in the movie written by the hyper-talented Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher it is a revelation that algorithms and discussions about them can be so watchable. I do not know of any other movie where freezing a bank account is used as a dramatic device. Fincher and Sorkin together create a piece that brilliantly highlights their keen sense of drama that would have attended the creation of Facebook without its dramatis personae ever realizing it.

Fincher does a terrific job of bringing alive the atmosphere of a campus like Harvard where those who may be there by virtue of their privileged background, namely the wealthy twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, (both played effectively by one actor, Armie Hammer) and those who are there on the strength of their merit, namely Zuckerberg and his money man Eduardo Saverin (an excellent Andrew Garfield), naturally come into contact and conflict.

Sorkin has a telling line in the context of the claims and counterclaims between Zuckerberg and Winklevosses about who invented Facebook. Zuckerberg tells the brothers with almost annoying conceit, “If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you would have invented Facebook.”

January 30, 2011

The presence of large sums of cash in the Karmapa Lama’s monastery and office may not be egregious in itself because temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches as well as religious institutions in India routinely receive sizable donations in cash. They are unaccounted for tax purposes more often than you might think.

What makes the cash look questionable in this case is the diversity of currencies in which they were found, although that too can be explained by his global following. Even the fact that Indian investigators have reportedly found in excess of one million Chinese Yuan may turn out to have a perfectly legitimate explanation.

"The Karmapa has not done anything wrong to undermine and harm the interests of India," Karma Topden, the Buddhist monk’s spokesman told reporters even as investigators asked him 50 more questions.

"The Karmapa has got offerings from all over the world. The cash was donated money. There is no 'hawala' link to money," he said. The hawala link that he is talking about is the highly efficient but almost wholly unregulated way of transferring cash around the world which has been the preferred means of criminals.

"His very escape from Tibet and arrival in India clearly shows Tibetan people are being suppressed by the Chinese," Topden said to counter insinuations that the Karmapa is a “Chinese agent.”

So far the monastery’s official explanation that the cash is donations made by a large number of the Karmapa’s global supporters, including those from Tibet, has not convinced a whole lot of people. It is entirely possible that the Karmapa was genuinely unaware of the circulation of large sums of money around his monastery and office. But that lack of knowledge does not do much for him at this stage.

There is a possibility that when the raids are over and all the questions have been answered the whole affair may turn out to be a case of serious overreach by the Indian government. If that indeed comes to pass, it can seriously embarrass the government. After all there are not too many examples of major religious places being raided on suspicions of large-scale cash handling. You can go to any religious establishment of some standing in India and hope to find bundles of cash and jewelry. Gods, it seems, do not accept personal checks or credit cards.

If there is any substance in the innuendos that he is a Chinese agent, the Indian authorities did not have to wait to discover piles of cash to establish that. One can be fairly certain that everything that the Karmapa does is monitored by intelligence agencies. His alleged Chinese connections would have revealed themselves much earlier and in a less crude fashion. Despite its sledgehammer style of intelligence gathering I can tell you that the country’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) is a very effective domestic tool just as its external counterpart, the appropriately named, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). So I find it hard to believe that they would not have turned up something in the past decade or so.

But then sitting in a dungeon in Naperville I am hardly qualified to determine who is a Chinese agent in India.It’s the sort of place that would require much less than 50 questions to agree with anything, including that the earth is a cube.

For the record the Karmapa’s office of administration has issued the following statement. For what it is worth, it is fairly combative and categorical.

“We would like to categorically state that the allegations being leveled against the Karmapa and his administration are grossly speculative and without foundation in the truth. Everyone who knows the history of our lineage, our struggle and His Holiness' life is very surprised by the allegations.

We categorically deny having any link whatsoever with any arm of the Chinese Government. The Karmapa has a deep affection for the people of this great country of India where he has been practicing his faith for years. We have had a long and positive working relationship with the democratic Government of India that has always demonstrated great tolerance of cultural expression and diverse beliefs.

We have followers in a large number of countries who have placed their trust and faith in us and, through their individual donations, enabled the sect to undertake substantial programs of public service that have benefitted many thousands in India and abroad.

Monasteries across the world accept offerings from devotees in various forms-there is nothing surprising, new or irregular in this. A representative of HH the Dalai Lama's office underlined this yesterday. The cash in question under the current investigation by the police is offerings received for charitable purposes from local and international disciples from many different countries wishing to support His Holiness' various charitable activities. Any suggestion that these offerings were to be used for illegal purposes is libelous.

At this point, about the Chinese currency we can say that his Holiness has a large following of Tibetans from Tibet who make donations in Chinese currency. The fact is that His Holiness the Karmapa has millions of followers around the world, who hold him in the highest esteem and reverence. All our dealings across the world are honest and completely transparent-anything else would be contrary to the Buddhist principals that we live by.

Because the Gyalwang Karmapa resides in temporary quarters in Dharamshala, his Office of Administration has been seeking to build a monastery as a permanent residence for His Holiness. This project is clearly subject to Indian government approval. The Gyalwang Karmapa's office has kept the relevant Indian government agencies fully informed of its recent plans to purchase suitable land. The potential site was evaluated and cleared by the appropriate governmental offices. The negotiations to purchase the land are still in progress, have been reported to the Indian authorities, and are completely above board.

I can confirm that Shakti Lama was taken into custody yesterday but we are confident of his release very shortly, as soon as we provide the law with the answers they are looking for. I can also confirm that HH the Karmapa has made himself fully available for questioning by the officers concerned.

We will supply as much information as available, as regularly as possible but would also like to state that our first priority is to cooperate fully with the investigations underway.”

January 29, 2011

The raids on and reported seizure of large sums of cash from the the Gyuto Tantric University and Monastery of the Karmapa Lama is a huge embarrassment for the Tibetan cause. Indian police have raided the monastery in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh with the Indian media reporting the seizure of a total of seventy million in Indian rupees and other currencies (about $1.5 million).

The raids followed the arrest of two men from the nearby Una district with ten million rupees in cash. The money was allegedly meant for an illegal land deal in which Rubgi Choesang, one of the Karmapa’s aides has been implicated. Choesang, an accountant at the monastery was arrested on Thursday, and is police custody, according to media reports.

What has particularly troubled the Indian police is the discovery of 1.1 million Chinese Yuan in “neatly packed bundles.” Jaideep Sarin, a correspondent of the IANS, quoted an unnamed police officer as saying, “Such neatly packed bundles of Chinese Yuan currency could not be given by devotees visiting him who make only small offerings to him. This money could have come from somewhere else. Moreover, how many Chinese visit him anyway?”

The implications of that comment are still in the realm of the innuendo that the Karmapa Lama has some unexplained Chinese connections. Shaken up by the raids and the questioning of the Karmapa by police and other unnamed Indian agencies his office issued a formal statement by Karma Chungyalpa, Deputy General Secretary and Spokesperson. It said: “Our lineage and His Holiness the Karmapa enjoy the love, trust and faith of millions across the world. We have a rich history of public service made possible through financial dealings that are entirely transparent. We will certainly answer all questions that the press and the public have, but for now we respectfully request you to allow us to concentrate on complying fully with the investigation that is underway.”

Ever since the Karmapa’s mysterious escape from Tibet in 1999, when he was just 14 years old, some in the Indian establishment have looked at him with suspicion. I have heard some of them going so far as to wonder whether he is a Chinese agent. However, the fact that the young Karmapa has enjoyed the Dalai Lama’s endorsement has so far helped keep those fringe conspiracy theories from becoming mainstream suspicion.

It is not my case that the raids and the reported seizure of the cash necessarily strengthen such suspicions but they certainly cause a huge embarrassment. It also provides the much needed oxygen for the conspiracy theories, not that they need any.

For all you know, this may turn out to be a case of illegal land acquisition, which has long been a widespread Indian malaise.

January 28, 2011

The farthest and one of the very earliest galaxies ever seen in the universe appears as a faint red blob in this ultra-deep–field exposure taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This is the deepest infrared image taken of the universe. Based on the object's color, astronomers believe it is 13.2 billion light-years away. (Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (University of California, Santa Cruz, and Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team)

The discovery of the oldest galaxy ever—it is 13.2 billion light years away—takes us our closest yet to what is believed to be the origin of the universe. NASA’a Hubble Telescope has just discovered the galaxy identified as UDFj-39546284 that formed 480 million years after the big bang. Considering that the universe is calculated to be 13.7 billion years, this is almost like watching our own embryo evolve.

The light from the red blob that we are looking at now left it 13.2 billion years ago. When you consider that light travels nearly 10 trillion kilometers or six trillion miles in a year and multiply that by 13.2 billion you get some sense of how far this galaxy is. In simpler terms our past is catching up with us only because astronomers have cared to look. We are living in times when humans can look the farthest we have ever looked because of the Hubble Space Telescope. The NASA graphic below neatly illustrates how we have evolved over the two decades.

What is fascinating for me personally is that we are looking at is something that happened so long ago that it is beyond rational conception. We cannot tell whether or not this galaxy still exists today. For that we will have to wait another 13.2 billion years at the very least. I say the very least because if the universe is in an infinite expansion mode, then it is possible that we would not be able see even beyond our own immediate galactic border. The expression “we” is misleading because I am talking billions of years from now.

For as long as I remember I have looked at sentient life from this universal scale. We strut about vaingloriously stroking our own importance oblivious to the fact that we cease to matter almost as soon as we leave the earth’s stratosphere. As of now we don’t matter even on our nearest celestial body, our own groupie as it were, namely the Moon. So next time something or someone on this planet bothers you or unsettles you or irritates you, just think of UDFj39546284 and it will all just melt into indescribable insignificance.

January 27, 2011

Investigative journalist Sebastian Rotella of ProPublica has meticulously reconstructed what went on behind the scene as the Lashkar-i-Taiba (the Army of the Pure) plotted the audacious Mumbai terror strikes in November, 2008. This is journalism at its very best. I strongly recommend you read the piece.

This story has greatly fascinated me from the day it started unfolding here in Chicago. I have covered all the court appearances key Mumbai terror plotter David Coleman Headley (formerly known as Daood Gilani) and his fellow accused Dr. Tahawwur Hussain Rana and have been trying to gather information to eventually write a book. However, my efforts have led me nowhere so far with either the prosecution or the defense or the investigators in terms of getting any information other than what is furnished in the court documents.

Rotella, on the other hand, has managed to painstakingly dig out enough material to build a powerful narrative. It is a tribute to his skills as a journalist as much as it is a sorry reflection on my failure. Covering court cases is the easiest form of journalism (apart from news conferences) in the sense that it involves nothing much more than taking down notes like an efficient stenographer and asking a few intelligent questions of the attorneys concerned. That I have done without any effort whatsoever.

What is not easy what Sebastian Rotella has done by tapping a large number of diverse sources, both on and off the record. To be fair to me, it is only a question of deciding to go after this story with everything I have got. And I have been doing so for the past few weeks. Perhaps by 2012 I will have a substantial book on the Mumbai strikes ready. But until then, kudos to Sebastian Rotella for persisting with this story and producing consistently good work.

There has been some speculation over whether the US security/intelligence establishment was lax, either by default or design, when it came to monitoring Headley’s many trips to India and Pakistan despite knowing about his increasingly dubious activities. For me the key question has always been the ease with which Headley, who was most likely being monitored, traveled unmolested. His change of name from Daood Gilani to Headley is highly unlikely to have changed his social security number, although it is not altogether impossible. If that number had remained the same, his assumption of a new name would not have materially changed anything for the investigative agencies.

The purpose of this post is limited to applauding Sebastian Rotella. So give it up.

January 26, 2011

President Barack Obama giving the State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Behind him (left) Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker John Boehner

Media analysis of the State of the Union (SOTU) address by the President of the United States (POTUS) is an annual ritual which has acquired farcical proportions. The fun begins with the abbreviations SOTU and POTUS. (I have added an S for Speeches to make the two rhyme in the headline.)

Both the broadcast and print media deploy hundreds of journalists and commentators to parse every presidential phrase and check every coma, colon, semicolon and anything that resembles a punctuation mark. If the SOTUS were a person he or she would have had every orifice examined.

I watch both the SOTU and the analyses that follow them as a form of entertainment. Invariably, I feel deep post-sotual fatigue. It is particularly amusing to see the huge line-up of experts on CNN panels. You will never find the panel less than eight experts. What is really funny is that within the bounds of studio etiquette each tries to out-wisemouth the other. They all offer their perspectives with earnestness and assurance which tell you that there is no wisdom left on this particular subject of the SOTU once they have opined. And then pops up the next expert.

While independent experts on cable news have the freedom to express subjective opinions, it becomes particularly humorous when their professional correspondents have to go to ridiculous lengths to make it sound that they are offering purely objective analysis devoid of any personal bias. Unless you are an electronically generated human voice, like the audio version of this post, it is not possible to be that objective.

It is not as if only television news has an ever expanding opinionated girth. Even the print and online media now race to outdo each other in assigning any number of commentators to say their bit. The Daily Beast, a popular news and current affairs website run by Tina Brown for instance, has ten commentators offering their perspectives on how well they think President Barack Obama did. More often than not such analyses sound as if the analysts feel betrayed that the president was not entertaining or captivating enough. They seem to forget that the SOTUS are not stand-up shticks.

In some ways I am reminded of the laughable obsession that the Indian media displays for the annual budget speeches by the finance minister of the day. Equally ridiculous is that within minutes of the budget speech being delivered reporters fan out the streets to seek “common man’s” reaction (The expression common man has to be outlawed) as if they have the time and skill to digest that humongous document so quickly.

The SOTUS by the POTUS is nothing more than an annual statement of the obvious with some loosely defined aspirational objectives. They are important as far as they go. (See, how I brought in my current favorite expression as far as it goes).

P.S.: I have used two words that do not exist in the dictionary—post-sotual and out-wisemouth. Any future user should remember to send me a royalty check.

January 25, 2011

If for nothing else, purely for the symbolism of it I support the Islamabad Fashion Week that begins on Thursday. It is the first of its kind in the Pakistani capital. I also support it because it gives the extremists an atomic wedgie. (If you don’t know what an atomic wedgie is then find the nearest pop culture school and do a crash course). It is not a very current reference. The dictionary meaning of wedgie is “the condition of having one's underpants or other clothing uncomfortably stuck between the buttocks.” An atomic wedgie gets even worse.

The fashion week is being organized by Excellent Events and Entertainment (Triple-E) whose objective, according to the company’s website, is “create an avenue where designers, buyers, and media from East to West may connect and propose business.” The chief consultant is Tariq Amin, described by the same website as a man “who introduced the concept of STYLE in Pakistan.”

Admittedly, the website does not scream chic, either in terms of its own design or the way the content is crafted. I am no fashionista but even I can tell that what was on display last year would not set the couture world of Paris and Milan and perhaps even Mumbai on fire. Perhaps the pyro reference is a poor choice under the circumstances but let it pass this one time.

However, the very fact the capital of a country under siege by violent orthodoxy will host a fashion event at all should override any assessment about its couture standards. In any case, I should be the last person to judge fashion. For all you know Islamabad may replace Paris or Milan as the fashion capital of the world. (Let’s not push it.)

The event is being organized at the Serena, a luxury hotel in the capital. There would have been security concerns even during less violent times. But given the current unrest in Pakistan and the recent assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer are bound to heighten them. For the religious extremist loons a woman’s exposed thighs are as much provocation to launch a violent campaign as manufactured blasphemy.

January 24, 2011

When Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, who passed away today at age 88, sang he made one feel as if he was tapping into the spatial void and picking out fully formed masterpieces. It was as if only he could see and hear music in the great unknown lost to most of us.

I have no pretensions of understanding Indian classical singing in all its complexities. I would not know a raag if I tripped over one. And yet every time I listen to Pandit Joshi’s stentorian voice deal with the crests and troughs of Hindustani classical music he seems to harmonize the general ferment.

Although his grounding was in pure Hindustani classical music he established a unique relationship with his admirers because of his bhajans and abhangs. Even when he sang a bhajan he came across as someone who had figured out more than there was to figure out and was beseeching the rest of us to cross the divide with him.

For someone who sang for over seven decades Joshi never sounded jaded. To be able to bring the same level of freshness to one’s singing for such an extended period of time has to be regarded as otherworldly. At the same time though unlike most great musicians, who come across as if they have mistakenly strayed into a dimension that us lesser mortals inhabit Joshi’s presence seemed deliberate. He was here looking out and not there looking in.

There is no point analyzing Joshi’s overwhelming gifts as a singer. I suggest just listen to any of his thousands of songs to celebrate a great life. I chose the one above for no particular reason.

January 23, 2011

Once you get past the innate humor of its name this brand new “information experience” on the Net is indeed what it says it is—“the information experience.” May be it is just my reflexively “dirty” mind but it is possible that the creators of this new search platform called Qwiki have a naughty sense of humor.

With my mandatory flippancy out of the way, let me tell you a bit about Qwiki. I have just begun testing it. If the eventual objective of Qwiki’s founders Doug Imbruce and web pioneer Dr. Louis Monier is to shake up Google as the preferred search platform, then I think they are on to something. Unlike Google, which is by any measure an algorithmic triumph of the highest order, Qwiki offers a far more engaging audio-visual and story telling experience.

Even if I discount the fact that I am a sucker for new things in all walks of life, particularly science and information technology, I think Qwiki poses a real threat to Google once it has managed to acquire nearly as much information as the search giant. However, that is precisely the point. I wonder whether Qwiki can escape depending on Google’s accomplishment. If it cannot, then it may end up being merely an attractive cosmetic veneer.

I am tempted to speculate that the exit of Eric Schmidt as Google’s CEO and return of the search giant’s co-founder Larry Page’s in his place may have something to do with Qwiki. I could be totally wrong but it is possible that Page has been tracking Qwiki. What makes it a venture to watch is the kind of people who are bankrolling it. Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook, Jawed Karim, a co-founder of YouTube, and Pradeep Sidhu, a cofounder of Juniper Networks. Together they are reported to have invested $8 million into Qwiki. I know eight million is what Larry Page may carry as his pocket money but still it is the pedigree of the investors that would matter here.

What Qwiki does is take diverse information on any given subject and gives it a linear audio-visual treatment. One jarring note of the presentation is the electronically generated female voiceover which can sound too clinical and disembodied. It sounds too robotic and synthetic for my tastes. I understand the economics of using synthetic voice but Qwiki should consider bringing in a little more warmth to it.

From what I have seen so far the search platform lives up to a lot of its promise of experiencing information rather than just reading it. I can see myself using Qwki as much as Google as it becomes more pervasive and eventually even using just that.

There is one major drawback here though. In keeping with my modesty, I quickly searched my name and nothing came up. I am sure the Qwiki team will correct that huge omission. In contrast, Google offers tens of thousands of references against my name. What this means is that Qwiki is not necessarily depending on Google’s database. It also means that no one gives a whit about me.

January 22, 2011

Inspired by President Barack Obama’s state dinner for visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao I have decided to throw one in honor of my creditors. Each creditor will have the option of bringing two repo men.

Renting a tuxedo for the occasion is out of the question because the tuxedo renter is on the guest list. So I will do with a suit I had got tailored for my wedding 16 years ago. Yes, it still fits although buttons and buttonholes really struggle to make ends meet, quite like its wearer.

I can imagine that most of my creditors would be looking for things in my house they can auction to recover some of their debts rather than engaging in small talk. It is a great challenge to choose a menu for the evening because no matter what I serve some creditor is likely to wince while chewing it thinking that his or her money might have paid for it. Drinks are not going to be on the menu because it is bad enough to have creditors over for dinner.Why make it worse by getting them drunk? The only thing worse than an angry creditor is an angry drunk creditor with two repo men.

I have to be careful in choosing which among my creditors I invite. To those whom I owe less than $1000 will not make the cut. They are just not classy enough for the event. I mean look at President Hu who was so polite, even though his country has lent America nearly a trillion dollars. If he was thinking how it would feel to repossess the White House, he did a great job of hiding it. I am sure he had been informed that the White House’s value had also been hit by the general real estate decline.

I will be particularly gracious to the repo men. In case they have to come for my cars, it would be good to have them remember the great meal I served them. They would afford me the courtesy of not ambushing on a freeway and taking possession of my car, leaving me flashing my thumb for a ride home. They might consider first dropping me home and then take the car.

This is a potentially great plot for a comedy. Inviting your creditors for a dinner is fraught with some wicked humor. I have already registered the idea. So if you have any plans to plagiarize it, be warned. I will sue you. (Really).

It would be awkward to start a conversation with a creditor but I have thought of a perfect ice breaker.

“So I am wearing a decent undergarment in case you decide to repossess my suit after dinner.”